ment thought it prudent to send him back to CH. 4. Scotland, without further punishment.* A.D. 1531. of Kent. Another more famous prophetess was then in The Nun the zenith of her reputation-the celebrated Nun of Kent-whose cell at Canterbury, for some three years, was the Delphic shrine of the Catholic oracle, from which the orders of Heaven were communicated even to the pope himself. This singular woman seems for a time to have held in her hand the balance of the fortunes of England. By the papal party she was universally believed to be inspired. Wolsey believed it, Warham believed it, the bishops believed it, Queen Catherine believed it, Sir Thomas More's philosophy was no protection to him against the same delusion; and finally, she herself believed the world, when she found the world believed in her. Her story is a psychological curiosity; and, interwoven as it was with the underplots of the time, we cannot observe it too accurately. tory. a servant farmhouse In the year 1525, there lived in the parish of Her hisAldington, in Kent, a certain Thomas Cobb, bailiff or steward to the Archbishop of Canterbury, who possessed an estate there. Among the Originally servants of this Thomas Cobb was a country girl girl in a called Elizabeth Barton-a decent person, so far as we can learn, but of mere ordinary character, and until that year having shown nothing unusual in her temperament. She was then attacked, however, by some internal disease; and Subject to after many months of suffering, she was reduced fits. * BUCHANAN, History of Scotland, vol. ii. p. 156. in Kent. epileptic A.D. 1531. A CH. 4. into that abnormal and singular condition, in which she exhibited the phenomena known to modern wonder-seekers as those of somnambulism or clairvoyance. The scientific value of such phenomena is still undetermined, but that they are not purely imaginary is generally agreed. In the histories of all countries and of all times, we are familiar with accounts of young women of bad health and irritable nerves, who have exhibited at recurring periods certain unusual powers; and these exhibitions have had especial attraction for superstitious persons, whether they have believed in God, or in the devil, or in neither. further feature also uniform in such cases, has been that a small element of truth may furnish a substructure for a considerable edifice of falsehood; human credulity being always an insatiable faculty, and its powers being unlimited when once the path of ordinary experience has been transcended. We have seen in our own time to what excesses occurrences of this kind may tempt the belief, even when defended with the armour of science. In the sixteenth century, when demoniacal possession was the explanation usually received even of ordinary insanity, we can well believe that the temptation must have been great to recognise supernatural agency in a manifestation far more uncommon; and that the difficulty of retaining the judgment in a position of equipoise must have been very great not only to the spectators but still more to the subject of the phenomenon herself. To sustain ourselves continuously under the in A.D. 1531. fluence of reason, even when our faculties are CH. 4. preserved in their natural balance, is a task too hard for most of us. We cannot easily make too great allowance for the moral derangement likely to follow, when a weak girl suddenly found herself possessed of powers which she was unable to understand. Bearing this in mind, for it is only just that we should do so, we continue the story. fits she clairvoy This Elizabeth Barton, then, 'in the trances, In which of which she had divers and many,* consequent shows a upon her illness, told wondrously things done and power of said in other places whereat she was neither her- ance. self present, nor yet had heard no report thereof.' To simple-minded people who believed in Romanism and the legends of the saints, the natural explanation of such a marvel was, that she must be possessed either by the Holy Ghost or by the devil. The archbishop's bailiff, not feeling himself able to decide in a case of so much gravity, called in the advice of the parish priest, one Richard Masters; and together they observed carefully all that fell from her. The girl had been well disposed, as the priest probably knew. She had been brought up religiously; and her mind running upon what was most familiar to it, 'she spake words of marvellous holyness in rebuke of sin and vice;'t or, as another account says, 'she spake very godly certain things concerning the seven deadly sins and the Ten Command * Letter of Archbishop Cranmer.-ELLIS, second series, vol. ii. p. 314. + Statutes of the Realm. 25 Hen. VIII. cap. 12. A.D. 1531. priest pro CH. 4. ments.'* This seemed satisfactory as to the source of the inspiration. It was clearly not a The parish devil that spoke words against sin, and therefore, nounces her as there was no other alternative, it was plain inspired, that God had visited her. Her powers were assuredly from heaven; and it was plain, also, by a natural sequence of reasoning, that she held some divine commission, of which her clairvoyance was the miracle in attestation. municates ject with the Arch bishop of Canterbury. An occurrence of such moment was not to be kept concealed in the parish of Aldington. And com- The priest mounted his horse, and rode to on the sub- Lambeth with the news to the Archbishop of Canterbury; and the story having lost nothing of its marvel by the way, the archbishop, who was fast sinking into dotage, instead of ordering a careful inquiry, and appointing some competent person to conduct it, listened with greedy interest; he assured Father Richard that the speeches which she had spoken came of God; and bidding him keep him diligent account of all her utterances, directed him to inform her in his name that she was not to refuse or hide the goodness and works of God.' Cobb, the bailiff, being encouraged by such high authority, would not keep any longer in his kitchen a prophetess with the archbishop's imprimatur upon her; and as soon as the girl was sufficiently recovered from her illness to leave her bed, he caused her to sit at * Extracts from a Narrative containing an Account of Elizabeth Barton: Rolls House MS. + Statutes of the Realm. CH. 4. A. D. 1531. she begins counterfeit. his own mess with his mistress and the parson. The story spread rapidly through the country; inquisitive foolish people came about her to try her skill with questions; and her illness, as she subsequently confessed, having then left her, and as only her reputation was remaining, she bethought herself whether it might not be possible to preserve it a little longer. 'Perceiving herself to be Meanwhile much made of, to be magnified and much set by, herself to by reason of trifling words spoken unadvisedly by idleness of her brain, she conceived in her mind that having so good success, and furthermore from so small an occasion and nothing to be esteemed, she might adventure further to enterprise and essay what she could do, being in good advisement and remembrance.'t Her fits no longer recurred naturally, but she was able to reproduce either the reality or the appearance of them; and she continued to improvise her oracles with such ability as she could command, and with tolerable success. monk of bury, sent archbishop In this undertaking she was speedily pro- Edward vided with an efficient coadjutor. The Catholic Bocking, church had for some time been unproductive of Cantermiracles, and as heresy was raising its head and by the attracting converts, so opportune an occurrence to Aldingwas not to be allowed to sleep. The archbishop sent his comptroller to the Prior of Christ Church at Canterbury, with directions that two monks. whom he especially named, Doctor Bocking, the cellarer, and Dan William Hadley, should ton. *Rolls House MS. VOL. I. + Ibid. Y |